Dispelling nutrition myths, ranting, and occasionally, raving

The truth about carb cutting

“Cutting carbohydrates (carbs) may help you lose weight in the short term, but it’s mostly because you are eating less food and fewer calories. Drastically cutting carbs means you’ll miss out on the nutritional benefits of healthy choices like whole grains, fruit, starchy vegetables, and legumes. Because so many foods are off-limits, it can be tough to stick with low-carb diets for very long. The best weight-loss plan is one you can stick with. To lose weight and keep it off, exercise regularly and use Canada’s Food Guide to plan a balanced diet with good food choices in the right amounts for you.”

What I say:

Cutting carbs will help you lose weight. However, it’s not a sensible healthy way to do it. Cutting carbs can lead to dangerous and/or simply undesirable side-effects such as ketosis, bad breath, constipation, headaches, and dehydration. We know that low-carb diets produce weight loss in the short-term. However, they’re not sustainable. Your brain, in particular, needs glucose to function, which it doesn’t receive when you’re eating a carb-free diet. Also, it’s incredibly difficult to maintain such a limiting diet and once you go off it you’re likely to gain all the weight you lost back, if not more. It’s not fast or trendy but the best way to lose weight is to make sustainable healthy choices. Make healthy eating and lifestyle choices that you’re willing to continue for the rest of your life and it’s more likely that life will be a long and healthy one.